Magnus wait a few minutes then they head out of the inn. Outside they find Strongarm and the boy waiting, Demic chooses to stay inside. Without a word the boy turns and starts heading down the street. Twice when approached by the soldiers, the boy turns and cowers behind Strongarm. Each time the soldiers move on without another word. One says, "We've checked everyone in this town at least twice. I'm beginning to know some of these people by name!"

     The boy leads them through the city to an area that seems less populated by soldiers. Magnus realizes they are heading back into the upper west section of town! They enter a familiar street and walk past a familiar home. They enter an alleyway between two buildings and enter a side door. Inside is a room decorated with rather expensive tastes in mind. A pair of comfortable couches , two chairs and a long table fills out this room. The decorations can only be described as eccentric and expensive.

     Several minutes later Kendrick enters, "Good... please sit." He moves over to the back of one couch and taps on the back. It opens revealing a hidden panel. He pulls out a large box and takes a seat in one of the chairs.

     Looking at Magnus, he says, "You were very close about my plans. I do plan on using the gem with a uniform to infiltrate their headquarters here in town. But I don't plan on doing that with one uniform and gem." He opens the box and reveals a dozen uniforms and gems.

     "They aren't the real things, just good copies. I paid a tailor a good amount of gold to get these uniforms done, based on just looking at the men who wear them. As you may have noticed, gold uniforms don't leave the inns much. It cost me a small fortune in platinum to have the gems cut by a glass cutter. I plan on entering the Hydra's Head Inn with several men in these uniforms, but we need at least one real gem in the bunch just in case they have some way of telling if the gems are real. Hopefully one effects produced by one real gem be assumed to be shared by all the others. As you can guess you have been drafted to help in this mission. Get a good nights sleep and prepare for battle tomorrow night. We meet here at dusk tomorrow and fill out the finer points in the plan and strike hopefully while most of them are drinking themselves into a stupor. Any questions?"

     Magnus looks at Kendrick and declares, "There are most definitely questions. First and foremost being what do you plan to accomplish in the Hydra's Head Inn. Now we all believe that this is where most of the soldiers have gathered and it may be their headquarters in this town, but what can we accomplish by going in without any idea of what the layout is like. At this moment there is someone who is scouting out the interior for me for it seems that the innkeeper isn't allowed to let normal folk into his establishment."

     Kendrick smiles and says, "That wasn't always so, my comrade. One of the men who will meet us here tomorrow will bring a rough sketch of the inn. It seems he frequented it before the soldiers came and isn't too fond of the fact they won't let him in now. I don't know how you managed to get a scout into that inn, but you should tell them to lay low, or better yet perhaps they can be used to increase our chances of seeming genuine."

     "Next," Magnus continues, "who exactly is going into the place and what is going to be your story. The soldiers know that their gold gemmed leaders have been killed here."

     Kendrick sputters, "What! When did this happen? I've had no reports of the deaths of any gold gemmed soldiers at the Ogre's Eye Inn. There weren't any soldiers stationed at the inn except to spring some trap. Their leaders weren't there." Magnus mentions a little about his encounter with the golden gemmed soldiers at the Wandering Minstrel, leaving out any mention of a certain woman.

     "Well now that makes things a little more interesting. It seems they are trying to cover up the fact that they are now just leaderless rabble. As for who is going, I will simply say, some people who have scores to settle and as for our story, we are not planning on pretending to be their dead leaders."

     "I presume that you will pretend to be from outside of town to replace those lost, but what if they haven't communicated that their leaders have been killed... then they will certainly be suspicious. Please tell me that you don't plan to attack the soldiers in their own headquarters without more men." He pauses, "if we need more uniforms they can be supplied, at lease five or six more from the ones taken at the Ogre's Eye, but if we don't have any set plan with a chance of succeeding I suggest that we postpone this little mission until we can get more information on the layout and strength of the soldiers there."

     Kendrick nods and says, "We will be replacing a delegation of gold gemmed soldiers who were supposed to reach town tomorrow evening. The actual delegation ran into some ogre trouble, when one of our friends gave them the wrong directions. Since this group is now leaderless, we can take control of the situation. After pretending to extend the search for the killers of our predecessors, we can decide that this city is no longer worth the trouble or that trouble elsewhere requires the attention of most if not all of the soldiers stationed here. We can bleed them off in groups. At the very least we can disorganize the troops in this town and make it easier to ambush the soldiers and force them out of town. The original plan was to meet with the leaders of the soldiers in this town privately and dispatch them, then send orders down to march on the Universal Harmony Church in town. Only a fool would do so, but these people don't seem to know about Tara's power. Members from the church will be waiting for them. We will get rid of them in one fell swoop. At worst we would be discovered and betrayed. In that case we were to carry evidence that would get them to attack the Church anyway. I'll have to run it by the others, but I believe that if we assume leadership, we can more easily force the soldiers to follow our original plan. If you have six more uniforms, then I can get six more men...did you get the gems as well as the uniforms? They would be most helpful. In any case, we must do this tomorrow. If anyone who is left is expecting the delegation, they will expect them tomorrow. I must go now or someone will notice my absence. Remember dusk tomorrow. We will discuss any changes then."

     With that he replaces the uniforms and gems and slips out of the room and into the night.

     Jassal motions for silence after Kendrick leaves. After a few moments he goes to the door and opens it. A few seconds later Demic enters the room. Jassal says, "What did he do after we left him?"

     Demic says, "He drank at the bar for a little while. The bartender is definitely in on it. I saw them pass subtle signals around. There were at least two others in the bar who were in on it, but I couldn't see who responded to his signals. No one followed me here and he didn't see me follow him. He came straight here, with no deviation. Did you know we are right down the street from Nushaba's? He even took a more direct route that we normally take to get here! So what was his plan?"

     Jassal fills Demic in on the plan and Demic rolls his eyes saying, "A true idealist. Let's face it no one in their right minds attacks a church." He pauses for a moment, "Then again, these guys are here for the purpose of freeing us from the 'influence' of the Harmony Church, so the idea of their leaders giving them an order to directly attack the church isn't so far fetched. Provided they haven't already tried it and found out it wouldn't work. The bit about taking over might work, if the group pretends that they don't know about the massacre of their leaders here. I wonder what the Lady Nushaba found out? So does this mean that we're all in on this crazy scheme or what?

     Magnus looks around at those gathered and says, "Good question Demic... are we all in on this crazy scheme? We should decide right now who is in and who is out. There is no pressure, for anyone to go along with this plan and we all can be certain that it will be dangerous. I for one am in. These soldiers have disrupted life in this town and over the entire valley if rumors are to be believed and I believe that they must be stopped. Who is with me? I will feel no ill will towards any that decide to step out now. Jassal, I do not mean to be presumptuous but I believe it would be better if Demic and Strongarm chose for themselves in this matter, not that they wouldn't otherwise."

     Jassal arches an eyebrow. "A valid point, he turns to Demic and Strongarm. Neither of you signed on to take on an army, if you did you'd be fighting the orcs up north in that crazy war. "

     Demic and Strongarm look at each other for a long moment, then Demic turns to Jassal and says, "I seem to remember something about combat bonus for protecting your hide. Does that still stand?"

     Jassal nods, "That is why I hired guards."

     Demic nods, "Then I'm in, there ain't nothing wrong with being a soldier for hire, just so long as he gets paid."

     Strongarm shrugs and says, "After all we've been through, it's kinda pointless to run now. How many fights have we been in, in the last couple of days where we were out numbered... I don't know. Just add one more to that long list."

     Jassal turns to Magnus and says, "Well that is settled, I've come this far and I have to admit this little adventure has given me quite a thrill, especially since my opponents aren't the typical orcs and ogres." With a mischievous grin he says pompously, "Besides, if I leave now, everything will fall apart without me and this town will be run over by those murderous brutes." He continues more soberly, "If that happened I'd have to cut this city from my trade route and take a large cut in my income."

     'Gideon' looks around at everyone judging their reactions, before saying, "I do not know if this plan would work... it seems quite delicate and could fail easily. Perhaps we should postpone the attack a few days... say three and we can scout the outskirts and hunt down and disable soldiers perhaps killing them or take prisoners. Also this time would give the selected men more time to train and focus and learn their role."

     Demic nods, "They do seem to be in a bit of a hurry, don't they? I think we'll prepare your arguments and tomorrow we will find out why and perhaps we can talk them out of it."

     Strongarm says, "Though, now that I think about it we should be goat stubborn in delaying things. We don't know how long they have been planning this, nor how much information they have. Also remember, we are the new guys on their plan, they won't trust us too much and might try and hang us as traitors if they think we work for them." He jerks his head in the general direction of the center of town.

     Magnus suggests, "We should return to Nushaba's by a roundabout route... maybe even splitting up... into groups of two."

     Jassal nods and gestures toward the door.

     Demic opens the door a crack and takes a long look outside, before stepping out. As he leaves he partially closes the door behind him and Strongarm looks through the crack as Demic walks down the street. "Nothing so far." He mutters. Then he and Jassal head out the door.

     Lastly 'Gideon' and Magnus leave the room. Outside nothing seems out of the ordinary and as they take their roundabout route to the house down the street, Magnus can detect no one following them or any other such trouble.